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Fate Of The Stars
Prolouge "Run!" I heard the yowl behind me, but what was the voice talking about? There was nowhere to run to. I was trapped. The dark cat in front of me parted his jaws, revealing white fangs dripping with blood. My brothers blood. His limp body lay behind his murderer. I arch my back and fluff out my fur, but he is undaunted. He snickers instead, and bites down on my right foreleg. Hard. My screech echoes on the earth walls of the tunnel. I jerk away, and after ripping his teeth across the flesh of the leg, he lets go. I stare at the scarlet drops as they escape the angry-looking dark gash just above my paw. I glare at my attacker, bare my teeth, and snarl so viciously he flinches back a single pawstep. But that's all I need. I explode through the tiny gap he created between myself and him, and take off for the exit tunnel. If I can make it out of these tunnels, I'll be safe. I see a faint glowing light. Yes! I think. I'm going to make it! I can hear paws thundering behind me but I keep going, forcing my legs even faster, though my muscles screech for me to stop. The light grows bigger and brighter as I get closer. Right when I think that I'm going to escape, that I'm going to get away from this murdering cat, I feel claws sink into my tail and yank me back. "No!" I yowl, digging my paws into the dirt and plunging forward. Hissing, I whirl around to face my attacker. He is stunned as my claws meet in his muzzle, and he howls. I try to yank my tail away, but his grip only tightens. This is it. I turn and try to shove forward again, but teeth meet in my back fur and jerk me back. I lose my balance and flop onto my back. It's over. I stare into the eyes of the cat as he looms over me, lip curled, ready for the kill. He looks confused when he doesn't see fear in my eyes. Only exhaustion. And he won't find any no matter how hard he searches. Because I'm not afraid of joining my brother. After a moments hesitation, trying to find an emotion that no longer exists to me, he snarls and raises a paw. My brothers blood already glistens on the white tips. I stare at it as it sails down and lands a deep gash in my throat; I jerk as I hear a wet tearing sound, and a familiar howl of "No!" sounds in my ear. I'm laughing hysterically as my brothers spirit comes to claim my own. Chapter One "You don't have to go," I whispered to Bluelight. My blue-gray friend was leaving with her father to go to an abandoned Twoleg farm that was crawling with mice. When and if she went, that would leave only two of my friends remaining in LightningClan. I gazed into her amber eyes and saw regret burn within their depths. "I'm sorry, Stargaze," She murmured. "Father thinks it best, so that's that. He doesn't care what I want, so long as I'm safe and well-fed. And the barn will feed us." I sigh and touch my nose to her ear. I knew that I shouldn't want her to stay; she'd starve to death if she stayed, but would break my heart if she left. In the end, a full belly won out. "I know, Bluelight. I shouldn't be selfish. Go with your father. I'll miss you." Bluelight gave her famous rusty purr and pressed her nose into my shoulder, then bounded off to stand beside her father. With a final longing glance at me, she pressed against her father and they bounded away. I jumped as a pelt brushed mine, and found myself looking into the soft blue eyes of Rainfoot. "Bluelight's gone?" He quiried, watching her blue tail-tip disappear in the bushes. I nodded and sniffed, trying not to look miserable. Rainfoot was one of the two friends I still had in the Clan, and I didn't want him thinking I was weak. "Well, at least she'll be safe." Twolegs had been building more dens than normal, just inside our territory. They were still building them, taking up more and more of LightningClan's territory. We can't just move their territory to the side, because we used to be in a ring on Twoleg nests. Now we're surrounded by them on all sides. Even worse, kittypets are getting bolder, coming into the woods to hunt and take the prey back to their Twolegs. When LightningClan needed their warriors the most, they were leaving the forest to find a new home. Their entire Clan was breaking apart. Swiftstar declared that she wouldn't send any cats away, that they would all leave at their own will, and that all cats would hunt and care for the Clan until the last cat was gone. Swiftstar refuses to leave, even if it means starving to death. But I don't understand what good our Clan will be if Swiftstar loses her last life to hunger. "Oh, Rainfoot," I breathed, turning to face him. "What are we going to do?" Chapter Two I leaped at the rabbit, but we're all hungry and weak, and when it jumped and bolted, I was too tired to give chase. I watched longingly as the fluffy white tail disappeared under a bush. I sighed and went to unbury the scrawny mouse I'd caught earlier, when I was powered by the mouthful of squirrel I'd eaten before I left. I raked my claws against the earth until I felt fur, then I plunged my muzzle down into the hole and jerked the limp, skinny body from the ground. It dangled from my jaws and bounced against my chin as I carried it back to camp, where it would most likely end up as food for Mistywhisker and her four kits; Sparrowkit, Blossomkit, Runningkit, and Nightkit. My belly growled as the scent of the mouse tickled my nose, and I had to fight the urge to gulp down the mouse in a single famished bite. "Good catch." I jumped and whirled around, almost dropping the mouse. The speaker was one of my last friends in the Clan, Shiningstripe. Her pretty tabby pelt looked dull and ungroomed, but her emerald eyes still sparkled in the sunlight. "Thanks," I mumbled around the prey. I gulped and shivered, then came to my senses and put my kill down. "Every time I catch something, I have to fight the urge to eat it. I almost had a rabbit, but I was too weak to chase after it." "I know," Shiningstripe replied, licking one silver paw and drawing it over her ear. "I've been watching you. Too hungry to hunt. I'll wait until I get a bite to eat." She glanced hungrily at my mouse. "Do you think Mistywhisker will let me have a scrap of that?" She asked hopefully. I sighed, ruffling a tussock of long grass in front of my nose. "I doubt it. You know how she is about prey right now." I wrinkled my nose. "It's all 'The kits deserve all the food!' and yet she eats half of the share for herself." I give my head a shake, trying to clear the images of Mistywhisker gulping down a mouse while the rest of her Clan goes hungry. "We need to find new territory if we want to survive, Stargaze," Shiningstrpe whispered, gazing out at the setting sun. "It's not safe for us here anymore. We'll all die if we stay, but the Clan will be lost if we leave. We need new territory." I nod and pick up my mouse again. "We'll tah whe i ge dis bah to cahm," I meowed through the fur of my fresh-kill. Shiningstripe nodded and loped back into the shadows of the forest. Once she was gone, the woods were silent, other than the sound of my exhausted breathing. Chapter Three "I'm sorry!" Freckletail laid back her ears, and Swiftstar's eyes flashed with fury. "I'd stay if I could, but I just can't! It's not safe here!" "You're the medicine cat!" Swiftstar roared. "Without you, all my cats will die! What about Glowingheart? Huh?" I gave an embarrased cough as Freckletail's sister shuffled her paws. The two cats were closer than they used to be, since the Twolegs started their building. "I'm sorry, Swiftstar. Glowingheart may come if she wants, but I must leave. StarClan sent me a message last night; they said all hope was lost. They will not help. We will all die. My herbs cannot stop that." Swiftstar's beautiful brown fur was fluffed up. "Traitor!" She snarled so loudly that Dapplefur, her deputy, poked her head into the medicine den in alarm. "Look," I muttered. Swiftstar whirled around. "I just came in here so Freckletail can get the thorn out of my pad. You could at least wait until I'm gone to have your little war." Freckletail sighed and latched onto the thorn from my outstretched paw. I howled with pain as she jerked it out a lot harder than she needed to, then chewed a weird looking leaf. She carelessly slapped the poultice on my paw and tied cobweb around it. I stared at her in surprise before limping out. I could still here Swiftstar and Freckletail fighting, with Glowingheart desperatley trying to break them up. My Clan is a stranger, I thought as I watched two warriors getting in a fight over a scrap of meat one had brought home. Swiftstar would never yell at the medicine cat like that. What will become, if we're all behaving like rouges?! Chapter Three I was grooming my fur, thinking, we may starve to death, but we'll still have the most gorgeous fur around, when Swiftstar padded up to what used to be the fresh-kill pile and gave it a sniff. She pulled an elderly sparrow off the top; I rose to my paws, knowing that was too much for her, but she padded away to the nursery. I heard the excited mewling of Mistywhiskers' kits, wailing about how they wanted warm squirrel, not cold sparrow. Swiftstar's mew was exhausted as she explained to the kits that that was the best she could do, and emerged from the bramble den a moment later. I sat back down and struggled to flatten an especially stubborn tuft of fur as Swiftstar picked through the rest of fresh-kill with her claws. "You should rest," I tell her between licks. The leader looked up at me wit dull amber eyes. "Now that we don't have Freckletail, we don't have anyone to give us strengthening herbs." Despite Swiftstar's furious disapproval, the medicine cat had left the Clan early the next morning. She'd been terribly upset when she found her sister was staying behind, and when she couldn't change Glowingheart's mind, she'd simply left. Her parting words - "May StarClan light your path" - had once meant something, but now, we were sure even StarClan had fled to safer skies, to far to light any cats' path. "I cannot aford to rest," Swiftstar spat, though she didn't seem hostile at all. Her fur hung limply from her skinny, bony frame, not spiked with anger, and her eyes were dull orange, not firey amber. Her tail was slumped carelessly on the ground, not lashing through the air. My leader was a stranger to me. I rose to my paws, stretching, and with a tense and awkward "G'nite," to Swiftstar, I loped off to the warriors den. There were only a pawful of warriors left, and the nests were clumped tightly together. I found mine, wedged between Rainfoot and Shiningstripe's, and spiraled into it. Only one cat was asleep, and unidentifiable heap of tabby fur. I curled up into my nest, the only comfortable thing in my upside down world. Chapter Four I was stretched out outside the warriors den, sharing a piece of rabbit no bigger than my paw with Shiningstripe, when I heard the screeching. I looked up in surprise, too weak to shoot to my paws the way I once did, as Goldenwillow and Runningcreek crashed into the camp, pelts torn and bloody, panting heavily. "What is it?" Swiftstar demanded, storming up to the two winded warriors. "Twolegs-" Goldenwillow gasped. "They moved-" pant "-farther into-" pant "-out territory." "Me and Goldenwillow were hunting." Saying all that without breathing nearly made Runningcreek fall over, but somehow he stayed on his paws. "And- The Twolegs started yelling and crashing through the brambles. They threw things at us and chased us. We just barely lost them before we got to the camp." He finally slumped over, unconscious. His daughter Daisypaw let out a scared mew and snuggled into his fur. So, the Twolegs were moving farther in, eh? Wonderful. Goldenwillow, Runningcreek and Palepaw had been hunting in the pine copse. We got nearly all of our prey in the pine copse. Well, what little prey we did catch usually came from the pine copse. ...You know what I mean. Wait. Goldenwillow, Runningcreek, and Palepaw. "Where's Palepaw?" I called to Goldenwillow, who was lapping at a stinging scratch on her side. She glanced up mid-lick, eyes dark. "They took her," She murmured, her tail twitching. "Palepaw tripped on a root, fell back only a little bit, and they grabbed her. I don't know what happened to her." I winced. Palepaw was Goldenwillow's last living kit. That had to be awful. "I'm sorry," I called. She only nodded. We'd all lost someone important, and no one really acknowledged it anymore. As I settled into my nest in the warriors den, I had only one thought on my mind. LightningClan needed a new home. And if it was the last thing I did, I was going to find us one. Chapter Five "You're crazy!" Rainfoot hissed, a little too loudly. His eyes were stretched wide, his matted fur fluffing out in surprise. "Quiet!" I slapped my tail over his muzzle, glancing around to see if any cat heard. Mistywhisker's kits were tumbling around a few fox-lengths away but their ears didn't even twitch at the tom's exclamation. "How are you supposed to find us a new home?" Rainfoot growled in my ear. "You have to go through the Twoleg area no matter what, and through the cunstruction site too, just to get out of the forest. You'll get yourself killed before you make it out." I sighed. He was right, it would be hard, but not impossible. The Twolegs weren't around working at night; they went back to their nests to sleep. And the Clan would be asleep at night; no more midnight hunters, because every cat was too exhausted to waste the sleep time. "And what about the prey you bring in?" Rainfoot went on, his thick tail lashing. "Have you thought any of this through? Without you, we might officially starve. Swiftstar says Leafcloud is only days away from dying." I flattened my ears, not wanting to hear more. "But if I can find new territory," I hissed, holding his gaze. "We'll all survive! I can lead the Clan to the new home, and-" "There's not a Clan left!" Rainfoot burst. "Look around! Four warriors, a queen, three kits, a leader. Does that sound like a cat to you? Even our deputy and medicine cat left. All our elders died in the first hungry moons. And if you leave for StarClan knows how long, you might come back to nothing but a camp full of bodies." I gazed at him levely. "Then so be it. But at least I'll have tried, I didn't just abandon the Clan or sit here and feel sorry for myself. Are you coming with me, or am I in this alone?" Rainfoot glared at me, and his lashing tail stilled. "I'm staying here. We vowed to protect our Clan till our last breath, and even if the other cats have forgotten that, I haven't." He turned and stalked off to the warrior's den, shouldering Goldenwillow aside, who leaped back in surprise. I glared after him for only a moment more before turning out of camp to hunt. If I was going on a journey to find new territory, I would need something to eat to keep my strength up. Chapter Six Coming soon! Category:Fan Fictions